The Rancher Takes A Bride (35 page)

He had to go find her, apologize to her and ask her to forgive him. Tell her that he loved her. And then, if she would have him, he was going to get down on his knees and ask her again to marry him. Ask her to be his wife for the rest of their natural days. Tell her he was willing to follow her and her dream of acting, if that was what it took. As long as she would be his wife, his helpmate, and his lover, he would give her his heart and then some.

He glanced up and noticed his surroundings for the first time. He'd let his horse amble any direction he wanted, and now he was on the outer boundaries of the ranch, so far away that there was a line shack in the distance for shelter.

He kicked his horse into a gallop. He had to get to Waco and find Rose before she disappeared out of his life forever.

***

Travis opened the door and hurried into the house, eager to grab a few things and be on his way. The place had felt like a mausoleum since Rose had left and Eugenia had gone visiting a neighboring ranch. Everywhere he turned, he had mental images of Rose laughing and smiling. Walking through the rooms, he could almost swear he'd smelled her perfume. But he knew better. She was gone, out of his life for good unless he could find her.

"Is that you, Travis?" his mother called from the back of the house.

"Yes," he replied, eager to be on his way.

Eugenia stepped into the entryway and glanced around. "Where's Rose? I thought she was with you."

Travis set his gear down. When Eugenia left, Rose had been deliriously happy; now she was gone and he was going after her, to confess his love and beg her forgiveness. He would have to tell his mother what had happened while she was away.

"I can give you five minutes, and then I've got to be on my way," he said, turning toward the parlor.

Her forehead wrinkled in a frown, but she didn't say anything, only followed him into the parlor, where Eugenia took a seat on the loveseat. Travis began to pace the floor.

"What's wrong, son? You seem upset. Has something happened to Rose?" Eugenia questioned.

Clenching his hands, he turned and faced her, dreading giving her the news. "Rose has left for good, and I'm about to follow her."

He waited for her to absorb the information and watched as she looked at him, surprised.

"What do you mean, she's gone? She was here when I left Saturday morning, and the two of you seemed to have reached an understanding. I thought that maybe ..."

Her voice trailed off. Travis wasn't surprised his very observant mother had realized that the two of them had become a couple.

"She went with the acting troupe on to Waco. They left on the stage yesterday morning," he said, unable to tell his mother how it had taken every ounce of will power he possessed to keep from riding after Rose. In fact, he'd ridden out to the farthest pasture to work, just so he couldn't change his mind and go after her. Now he knew how foolish he was to have let her get away.

"But I thought the two of you . . ." She paused. "I thought that maybe you would eventually ask her to marry you. It was pretty obvious you wanted the girl."

Travis shrugged. "I did ask her to marry me."

"She turned you down?" Eugenia exclaimed.

"No. She accepted." Travis ran his hand through his hair.

Eugenia stood and walked over to her son. "What happened? Why did she leave, if you asked her to marry you?"

He glanced at his mother and shoved his hands in his pockets. Why did he feel that he was ten years old again and had to explain why he had gotten in trouble at school?

"After I brought Rose back to the ranch from that roadhouse in Waco, Tucker told me about an investigator in town who could search out her background. I thought I would find out how unscrupulous she was, and then I could prove to you that this woman was meant to be behind bars."

He glanced at his mother, feeling awkward. It wasn't often that he admitted to anyone he was wrong, but to have to tell his mother was tough.

"The investigator gave me the report last week. Rose is a con artist, but she's not even close to how bad I wanted her to be. Until she stole your wedding band, running a séance parlor was the worst thing she'd ever done."

"I thought that was a more creative way to earn money myself. But you still haven't told me why she left," Eugenia pointed out.

"Saturday she found the report on my desk," he stated. "She was upset that I had her investigated instead of asking her these questions directly. She said I didn't trust her. And then, when I couldn't tell her I knew for certain she hadn't stolen the ring, she left."

He sighed and sank down on the couch. "At the time, I thought I had to investigate her. She was a con artist; after all, and your ring disappeared while you were with her. But now I realize how much I love her, and I don't care what's become of your ring. I'm going after her."

Eugenia laid her hand on her son's arm in a comforting gesture. She took a deep breath. "You love her?"

"Yes, with all my heart. I don't care if she took your ring, I only know I love her."

"There's something I need to tell you about my wedding band," his mother said, a dire note in her voice.

She paused, and he could see the apprehension in her eyes. "Rose never stole my ring."

Unable to comprehend what she was saying, Travis stared at his mother in disbelief. "How do you know for certain she didn't take it?"

"Because I still have it."

"What?" Comprehension slowly dawned. Travis groaned and leaned his head in his hands. How? Had she lied to him? He couldn't be that wrong about Rose. Could he? "Why did you do this, Mother?"

"I've waited for years for one of my sons to get married, and finally I decided the only way this was going to happen was for me to take matters into my own hands." She paused and glanced at her son guiltily. "After you had Tucker put her in jail, I knew she would stand up to you. That she was just the type of woman you needed. I didn't require an investigator to tell me Rose was a good person. I knew it from watching her actions and her deeds."

"What did you do with the ring, Mother?" Travis asked, clearly irritated.

Eugenia wrung her hands. "Well, after I bailed Rose out of jail, we went back to that little house she was staying in. While she was packing, I tried to convince her to stay, to move out to our ranch. I so desperately wanted her to stick around that I offered to let her try to contact Tanner. But she turned me down."

Eugenia paced the floor, clearly nervous. Travis waited patiently, his anger building as his mother avoided his direct question.

"I was desperate. I knew how protective you've been of me since your father died. I knew you wouldn't stand for anyone taking advantage of me. So I slipped off my ring, and well ..." She glanced up at Travis. "I lied to you, son. I had the ring all along."

The room became deadly quiet, with only the ticking of the clock to be heard. A gut-wrenching pain made Travis almost cry out. His own mother had lied and tricked him. She had manipulated him to gain what she wanted, and in the end he had been duped and hurt. Not to mention what he'd done to Rose, the woman he loved.

"I ... acted without thinking, Travis. If I had thought this thing through instead of reacting, I never would have done this. I've been unfair to you and Rose, and I don't blame you one bit for being upset with me."

God, if she wanted to, Rose could prosecute him for what he had done to her. All because of his mother. Travis had never yelled at his mother, at least not until today.

"How could you do this and sleep at night?" he yelled. "You let me abduct an innocent woman, drag her kicking and screaming back to our ranch, only so that you could play matchmaker!"

"Well, I did it with your best interest at heart," Eugenia said timidly. "I know that doesn't excuse my actions. But you know my children are important to me."

"Mother, it was wrong! Do you realize how I have treated her? You let me disrupt her life, you let me believe that she was some sort of evil con artist who was stealing from innocent victims."

"Now, wait just a minute. I was wrong, I admit, but you came to that conclusion all on your own. If you remember, I was the one who defended her. I kept telling you she was not who she seemed. And she wasn't, was she?"

"No. But that still doesn't excuse you!" he yelled. "Damn it, Mother. She told me she loved me before she left. But she couldn't be with me because I didn't trust her or believe in her."

Eugenia stared at her son. Travis clenched his fist and felt the urge to hit the nearest wall, but he resisted. "What you've done goes against every principle you taught me. All along she's been innocent. She's been exactly who she said she was, and I've never believed her, but I believed you."

He'd always prided himself on being an honest, fair-minded person, yet knowing his mother, he'd taken her side and believed Rose had stolen her wedding band. Now to find out he was wrong, that all along Rose had been innocent, made him feel ten times a fool.

But worse than anything, he'd hurt the woman he loved.

Unable to sit any longer, he jumped up and strode from the room, his steps angry and forceful.

"Where are you going, Travis?" Eugenia cried, running after him.

"I'm going after her. I'm going after the woman I love and tell her how sorry I am for believing my mother instead of her."

Yanking his hat off the rack, he shoved it on his head.

"Give me the damn ring!"

Eugenia reached into her handbag and took out the small diamond band. She gave it to her son. "Give it to Rose."

He paused at the door. "Do me a real big favor, Mother. Stay out of my business from now on. Don't interfere again."

Rose missed Travis so much, she didn't know how she got through each day. Waco was a small town compared to Fort Worth, a peaceful community. But the ranch wasn't there, Eugenia wasn't there, and most of all Travis's dimpled smile wasn't there. The dependability and security she had experienced for the first time in her life was suddenly missing.

Though the feelings were wonderful, she couldn't stay and have them any longer with Travis. If he couldn't say he loved her, couldn't tell her he knew she had never taken his mother's wedding band, then they had no future. But living with her decision was not easy, and the urge to jump on the next stage and return to Fort Worth was strong.

Fortunately, the theater had kept her busy. The performance had been packed the night before. People from miles around had come into town to see
The Taming of the Shrew
.

In the small community, they were all celebrities. People stopped her on the street and told her how much they enjoyed the performance. Yet, she seemed to have lost whatever pleasure she'd found in acting. And sometimes she wondered if she had ever enjoyed this or simply had become an actress because that was what her mother had done, and it was Rose's last connection to her mother.

She was alone in the world. Both of her parents were dead, and now she was going to let Isaiah go. It was time for her to start over, make a change in her life. And that change meant starting fresh.

A knock on the door alerted her that Isaiah had arrived.

She opened the door and gave him a brief hug. "Come in, Isaiah."

"Miss Rose, are you all right?" he asked, thrown off balance by her hug.

"I'm fine, Isaiah. I'm probably better than I have been in months—I just don't feel that way yet," she said, knowing her whole world was about to change. "Sit down, Isaiah, I need to talk to you."

He took a seat across from her and leaned forward, his hands clasped together. "What's wrong, Miss Rose? You don't seem too happy."

She smiled. "You're very perceptive, Isaiah. No, I haven't been happy since before we left Fort Worth." She glanced down, and then she raised her eyes to him again. "Travis asked me to marry him."

She shook her head when Isaiah made an excited sound. "Then I found out that he had me investigated. I probably overreacted a little bit about the investigation, but when he couldn't admit that I was innocent of his accusations of stealing his mother's ring, and he couldn't tell me that he loved me—well, I broke it off."

"Oh, Miss Rose. I'm so sorry."

"It gets worse, Isaiah. In that report I found out that my father is dead."

"Oh, no, Miss Rose. How?"

"Apparently he had some problem with his heart and died not long after he remarried."

"My, oh, my. I'm sorry to hear about your father."

"I've been taking a long look at my life and what I want to do."

"Yes'm."

"Since I was a little girl, all I've heard about is the fact that my mother was Rosalyn Severin. I always thought that if Mother made it in the theater, I could too. But I don't know anymore."

"Miss Rose, your mother loved the attention she received. She always said it was hard work and not the sort of thing most people are cut out for."

"Isaiah, I think I've been chasing my mother's dream and not my own. I really don't enjoy acting. You know, all my life I've been dragged from one town to another, chasing my father's dream of getting rich. Acting is the same type of life. Going from town to town, never putting down roots or making friends.''